Mark Rogowsky
, ContributorI write about technology, trends and companies on the leading edge.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Apple's third-quarter earnings are in, with the company reporting $37.4 billion in revenues and a $1.28 per share in earnings. The top line (up 6%) was just a bit below the consensus forecast, which was looking for at least $38 billion -- the high end of Apple's guidance from last quarter. The keys to the quarter on the positive side were solid but unspectacular iPhone sales. Apple notched 35.2 million sales there (13% higher than a year ago), below the 36 million analysts were expecting. And iPads continued to struggle, delivering just 13.3 million units against 14.6 million last year (down 9%).

But the company was buoyed by strong gross margins of 39.4%, up sharply from last year's 36.9%. That was much better than forecast and, combined with Apple's share repurchases, allowed the company to post a 20% increase in earnings per share.

Fairly strong iPhone sales of 35.2 million buoyed a mixed quarter for Apple.

For the upcoming quarter, Apple sees revenues in the range of $37-40 billion. The low end of that range is below last year's $37.5 billion and the $3 billion gap is slightly larger than Apple has been providing lately, suggesting some uncertainty. The company sees gross margins in the 37-38% range, which is inline with last year's 37% figure. Apple doesn't provide EPS guidance, but assuming the company will retire roughly 100 million shares yields a range of $1.14-$1.31 for the coming quarter, slightly below the current consensus of $1.34 on Yahoo. (The gap is due almost entirely to Apple's revenue forecast coming in below analyst estimates of $40.4 billion.) A year ago, Apple reported $1.19 split adjusted.

It's safe to conclude the downside surprise on the iPad isn't happy news for Apple, which wrote off a similar decline in units sold last quarter to some issues with channel-inventory balance. At this point, the company will likely face some combination of these realizations: (1) iPads have a slower replacement cycle than expected (2) at current prices at least some customers are happy to choose less-expensive alternatives (3) the meteoric early success of the tablet means sales have peaked -- at least for the moment.

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And here's the conference call:

5:05 pm: Tim Cook is on the call recapping highlights from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. He's talking up the new OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, both of which are due this fall.

Cook continues to talk about how important iOS is to people (and to Apple). He never misses a chance to bring up customer satisfaction, that Cook! He's also mentioning CarPlay, which is just now beginning to appear in automobiles.

In short, he's using his time to remind the world that Apple is doing a lot of very cool stuff like monitoring your health and controlling your home. If you were hoping for a rehash of the earnings release, Cook is disappointing you. (This, incidentally, is much less boring than most calls.) The message: Apple has a "very large vision of what iOS can do."

5:07 pm: Cook touts the 20% EPS growth and record iPhone sales. He says iPhone sales were up 55% in BRIC controls. Mac sales are up in a year where computer sales are down another 2%. iTunes, Software and Service is "the fastest growing part of our business" up 25% year over year.

5:09 pm: Cook says iPads met Apple's expectations, but the U.S./Western Europe tablet markets are down 5% overall -- not just Apple. He reminds that iPads have 98% customer satisfaction rate for Air and 100% for Retina Mini according to ChangeWave. Most sales are to first-time iPad customers, too.

"We're very bullish about the future of the tablet market," Cook says. He's now touting the IBM partnership, which was recently announced, as a growth catalyst.

5:11 pm: Apple has done 29 acquisitions in this fiscal year, Cook, says, not including Beats, which he has name-checked and touted. He mentions the "incredible pipeline" of new products and services "we can't wait to show you."

5:12 pm: CFO Luca Maestri has taken over and he's rehashing the earnings release (thank goodness!). He reminds us iPhone is 41.9% of U.S. smartphone subscriber base and that iPhones sold near high end of Apple's estimates, despite "new product rumors." Apple is happy because some things happened that dampened sales in Japan too.

Maestri is now talking about iPad. He says sales grew in developing markets, including Middle East, China and India. But, of course, none of that was enough to offset the slowdown in the more mature markets.